Between Us and Them
by waterpulse
Summary: As he exits the Nexus, Jim realizes that Spock had thought him dead for 78 years, and wishes--only for a second--that he could correct the error. One second is enough.
1. Chapter 1

**Star Trek XI | Between Us and Them | Kirk Prime/Spock Prime**  
_As he exits the Nexus, Jim realizes that Spock had thought him dead for 78 years, and wishes--only for a second--that he could correct the error. One second is enough._

**Background Information for anyone who hasn't seen TOS/Generations:** In the Star Trek movie Generations, TOS!Kirk disappears on Enterprise-B's maiden voyage and is presumed dead. 78 years later, Picard finds out that Kirk was, in fact, sucked into the Nexus ("a blissful realm where time has no meaning") and manages to convince Kirk to exit the Nexus and help him stop the evil mad scientist trying to get into the Nexus. They save the world and Kirk is killed in the process. The ending of (and most of) the movie rubbed me the wrong way so here I am changing it only as a fanfiction writer can. Enjoy. :D

The stainless steel door slides open and he finds himself on the bridge of a starship. Strange, he thought, looking about idly. It wasn't Starfleet's habit to revert back to previous uniform designs.

"Captain," a voice from a panel across the bridge rings out sharply. "We have an intruder on the bridge."

The speaker is a Vulcan, and there is something achingly familiar about both him and the young man in command gold who approaches him.

"Identify yourself," the boy demands. (Really, the standard age of Starfleet captains must've dropped in the last century.)

"That," he says without thinking, "is definitely not protocol, Captain."

The boy-Captain's eyes ghost over the insignia of his jacket, and falters.

"I am Captain James Kirk of the starship Enterprise," he finally says. "Identify yourself and how you got onboard my ship." A pause. "Sir."

Jim's eyebrows lift at that. He thinks of Jean-Luc Picard, what he'd been told about the Nexus, and everything clicks into place.

"Oh my," he chuckles. "This is new."

//

A security team had arrived on the bridge, half of crew had a hand on their phasers, and still the intruder emanates an infuriatingly smug sense of calmness.

"Well," the man says. "We have something in common, Captain. My name is also James Kirk—but you can call me Jim."

Jim's entire body suffers a near imperceptible jerk. The man continues as if speaking to expressions of disbelief was completely normal.

"Is Spock around, by any chance?"

And then his eyes roll and his body slumps to the ground, Spock's fingers curled around the space where his shoulder was.

'That was uncalled for, Mr. Spock' and 'That looks so much cooler when you're not the one who's going to wake up with a headache' and 'What the _hell_ was that' all catch in his throat, and Jim finds himself at a rare loss of words.

"Captain," Spock says, a millimeter difference of eyebrow height betraying his otherwise unfazed exterior, "should we confine him to the brig?"

Jim looks down to where the stranger lay.

"No," he replies. "Sick bay, I think."

The furrows in Spock's forehead deepen. "It could be a trick."

"Then keep a security team posted."

"Captain—"

"Whoever he is, he retired from Starfleet with high honors," Jim interrupts. He forces himself to look away from the prone form. "Have Bones check him out."

Spock glares at him. "Aye, sir."

//

"I don't know to tell you this, Jim," McCoy says, throwing his hands up. "But that..._person_ over there might actually be you."

"Would you perhaps like to clarify that?" Jim replies with similar frustration.

McCoy draws up the chart. "I mean, your DNA is a match."

Jim gives the two sequences a thorough once-over and sure enough, the two strands were identical.

"How is that even possible? Is there some alien genetics lab we don't know about where they can clone and raise and not to mention _age_ whoever they're cloning to--_oh_."

"_Oh_?" McCoy repeats. Jim's face had drawn into a grimace. "Something click in that pretty little head of yours?"

"Yeah." Jim grits his teeth. "And given that the universe hasn't imploded upon itself, I can only conclude the impossible: Spock lied."

A throat clears from the doorway.

"If you are referring to my coming into contact with my future self," Spock says slowly, "I must remind you, Captain, I cannot lie about something I was never asked."

Jim whirls around, outraged.

"I was talking about the _other_ you, actually, but while we're on the subject—seriously you _never_ thought even _once_ that maybe I'd like to have _known_?"

Spock's face, miraculously, does not even twitch. "My mistakes, I had thought it irrelevant. I will keep your wishes in mind for the next time we encounter an alternative version of ourselves, sir."

Jim glowers, but three months of Captaincy allow him better focus on the matters at hand. "Wake him up, Bones."

"You sure about this?"

"We're not getting any answers with him just laying there," he says. "Wake him up."

One hypo to the neck later, the figure on the bed awakens with a groan.

"My goodness," he says. "I haven't been on the receiving end of one of those in, oh I don't know—it must've been at least ten years."

"Captain," Jim tries, but it doesn't sound right. Neither does "Kirk" and "Jim" or "Sir".

"Take your time, son," the older Kirk says, not unkindly. "It never gets easier, you know—and you'll never quite master the art of it, you just get a little better each time."

Bones is gaping openly now, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"To answer your previous questions," he continues, "I am James Kirk. I was the former Captain of both the Enterprise and Enterprise-A. As to how I came onboard, well, I made a wish and the next thing I knew, here I was. Although this…" His gaze flickers briefly to Spock. He looks _sad_. "…is not quite what I expected."

"The man is babbling, Jim," Bones mutters under his breath. "Should I knock him out?"

"How is that going to help?" Jim hisses back.

"How do you know this isn't some kinda trick? For all you know the man is some kind of alien spy."

"What was it you said during the paternity hearing, Bones? Word for word, DNA doesn't lie."

"It doesn't," he growls. "But alien spies do."

"Captain," Spock finally interjects. "I believe I may have a solution to your conundrum."

"Do tell, Mr. Spock."

"A Vulcan mind-meld, sir," Spock says. "I will know what he knows."

"I haven't had one of those in a while," the visitor says brightly, as if he had proposed having pie for dinner. "Please, proceed at will."

At his Captain's nod, Spock steps forward, hand outstretched, and closes his eyes.

//

_"Have I ever mentioned you play a very irritating game of chess, Mr. Spock?"_

_"Is that your _best_ recommendation?"_

_"Don't tell me that again science officer! It's a theory! It's possible! We may go up in the biggest ball of fire since the last sun in these parts exploded, but we've GOT to take that one-in-ten-thousand chance!"_

_"I don't believe in the no-win scenario."_

_"You can't tell me that when you first saw Jim alive that you weren't on the verge of giving us an emotional scene that would have brought the house down."_

_"You are closer to the captain than anyone in the universe. You know his thoughts. What does your telepathic mind tell you now?"_

_"No. Not like this. I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."_

_"Sir! He's dead already."_

_"…I never took the Kobayashi Maru test…until now. What do you think of my solution?"_

_"Sir, your son meant more to me than you can know. I'd have given my life if it would have saved his."_

_"…Jim. Your name is Jim."_

_"You said history considers me dead. Who am I to argue with history?"_

_"Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there, you can make a difference."_

_"…I have been, and always shall be, your friend…"_

//

Spock exits the meld inelegantly, with a sharp breath and an unschooled expression on his face.

"Spock," Kirk—his Captain Kirk—says, touching his arm. "Are you alright?"

The other Kirk, the one sitting on the table, looks at him with something akin to pity.

"I am fine, Captain," he bites out. "He...he is who he says he is. I believe the two of them are acquainted."

Understanding dawns on Kirk's face and he grins. "That's excellent—"

"Captain," Spock cuts in. "If there is nothing else, I must take my leave."

And without another word, he spins on his heel, and—there is no other word for it—flees.

"There's something you don't see every day," Bone says, turning his gaze back to the older-Kirk. "Someone wanna tell me what the hell is going on?"

"I will Bones, I will," Jim promises with a wide smile as he smacks his friend on the back. "I have to go send a transmission first though. Look after our guest for a second, will ya?"

Then, he too high tails it out of sickbay, leaving McCoy alone with the alien spy.

_Dammit, Jim._

//

"The intruder on the bridge is hereby deemed a passenger until further notice," Spock's calm, flat voice announces through the speakers. "Captain's orders."

//

"You look different; but then again, I suppose all of you look different."

A snort. "Of course there're gonna be differences, old man. Doesn't mean we're not all essentially the same people."

"Oh? How do you figure?"

"You guys still share the same DNA, don't ya?"

A quiet laugh. "I see your point, doctor."

A moment of silence.

"And how is your daughter?"

A pause and a inquisitive glance. "What're you talking about. I don't have any kids."

"Oh. My mistake."

//

_"This is Captain James Kirk of the Enterprise, requesting audience with Ambassador Solvak of Colony XVII on New Vulcan. Classified: Urgent. Message: Ring me back as soon as possible, old man, this is important."_

[ // ]


	2. Chapter 2

**Star Trek XI | Between Us and Them [2/2] | Kirk Prime/Spock Prime**  
_Jim Kirk is pleased to find that even in alternative realities, some things never changed. _

It is nothing short of surreal, walking through the halls of the Enterprise—the original Enterprise—again. Everything is different, near unrecognizable, but at the same time familiar. The corridors are brighter and flashier than he remembers, but it still takes him ten steps walking at a normal pace to reach the turbolift from sickbay.

Word travels quickly, even on a Constitution-class starship. Historically, the Captain does not acknowledge the existence of gossip. Historically, the crew would let nothing stand in between them and the truth. Jim Kirk is pleased to find that even in alternative realities, some things never changed.

His younger counterpart had requested (politely, even) that he keep off both the bridge and engineering, so as not to cause a disruption. He had agreed readily.

He knew the Enterprise and her crew. When they were ready, they would come find him.

//

The first to approach, unsurprisingly, is Montgomery Scott.

"So," he says, sliding into the opposite seat with a sizeable sandwich on his plate. "They say you're from the future."

"Indeed I am, Mr. Scott."

Scotty leans forward excitedly. "Are ye familiar with the warp drive advancements from your future?"

"And rob you of discovering how to break the time barrier yourself?" Scotty's eyes light up. "Not a chance."

Scotty guffaws. "I thought you wouldn't," he says. "The other fellow wouldn't either. But it didn't hurt to try. Once the Cap'n's alright with it, ye should really drop by engineering. Take a look around."

Kirk grins. "I will keep that in mind, Scotty."

//

"Captain, I am receiving a transmission from Starfleet," Uhura says, adjusting her earpiece. "Ambassador Solvak of Vulcan Colony XVII is on the line."

"Excellent," he says, snapping his fingers. "I'll see him in my quarters."

On instinct, her eyes travel to where Spock is, hunched over the corner panel. However, this time, he seems unusually unaffected by the news from New Vulcan. In fact, if anything, he almost appeared to be purposefully ignoring the news.

"Oh, and Lieutenant," Kirk adds, "contact our guest and direct him my way please."

The 'please' is unexpected.

"Yes, sir."

//

She finds him in the dining hall, in his corner with a cup of coffee on the table and a copy of Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' in his hands. The reading material alone suggests with finality that this man was indeed very different from her captain.

"I preferred the tragedies in my youth, and histories in my prime," he says as she nears. "Now I favor the comedies. Perhaps it is a sign of my age."

"The world is a tragedy to those who feel," Uhura quotes automatically, "but a comedy to those who think."

The older Kirk laughs. "Horace Walpole, very good lieutenant."

Her back straightens almost instinctively, like the way she did back at the academy after an engaging conversation with a favored professor.

"The captain has requested that your presence in his quarters."

"Excellent," he says. "Thank you, lieutenant…"

"Uhura."

"Uhura? You are Uhura?" His eyes swept over her, completely lacking in the lasciviousness that was Jim Kirk's trademark. "My apologies, I almost didn't recognize you."

"There was an Uhura in your universe as well, sir?"

"Nyota Uhura," he says with pride, "was the finest communications officer in all of Starfleet. I am glad to see you here on this Enterprise as well."

//

"Your message was marked urgent," Ambassador Spock says, "but you appear to be in good health, Captain."

"Sorry for the deception, old man," Jim replies easily with a grin that suggests entirely otherwise. "But I felt under the circumstances, it was a logical decision."

"Circumstances?"

"I've got a surprise for you. He'll be here any minute."

//

"Spock?" The lines in the older man's face deepen in delight as he rushes to the monitor and places both hands around it, as if the terminal was the body of his old friend. "Is that really you?"

The unadulterated elation on the older Jim Kirk's face is contagious and spreads easily to the younger Jim Kirk. In the back of his mind, he wonders if he'll ever be that happy to see _his_ Spock, the porcupine he was.

And then he turns back to the screen and the smile slips off his face.

The expression on the Ambassador's face is terrible to behold—stricken with a disbelief that ran deep—so _very_ deep, as if a painful old wound that had been ripped open.

Jim swallows hard, and looks away.

"Jim..."

It comes out in a breath, near distraught in the incredulity brought about by a near century length of separation.

"You look terrible, Mr. Spock," the older Kirk replies, warm and teasing. No, there is more than that. There is regret, sorrow, joy, and love all mixed together. There are dimensions in his tone he'd never heard out of his own before, and though they were essentially different, they were undeniably similar. He could easily imagine that voice to one day be his own.

The epiphany is like going into warp. On Delta Vega, how Spock could place the fate of a planet into the hands of a stranger who merely bore the name James Kirk; the obvious made clear in one simple exchange. Simultaneously, he understands now how little he'd seen, and how completely he misjudged the depth of the friendship between Jim Kirk and Spock.

It was a crushing thought, almost frightening in its intensity.

"I'll leave you two alone," he mumbles, and escapes.

//

"Captain, I'm receiving a transmission from Starfleet. We are to set a course for New Vulcan immediately."

//

"When you told me ours was a friendship that would define us both," Spock says icily, "you failed to mention that yours was hardly a mere _friendship_."

"My apologies, I had thought it irrelevant."

Already, the ambassador looks decades younger. Happier.

"Who was he?" Spock asks, almost (not) hesitatingly. "The Jim Kirk from your timeline. Why..."

"Spock," Ambassador says gently, "he was everything to me."

Spock swallows hard and closes the link.

//

"Tell me about yourself, your time, your Enterprise. I want to know everything."

"I could," agreeably. "But that's not what you want to hear, is it?"

"...no, it isn't."

"..."

"Tell me about my father."

//

The next day, the passenger's status upgrades to honored guest, and the Captain finally allows him on the bridge.

"Velcome to the bridge, sir!" Chekov chirps, the Captain and Commander conveniently nowhere in sight. "If you have need for anything, please to let me know."

Kirk Senior, as they have taken to calling him, blinks once before bursting into laughter.

"No, it is not you, Ensign," he says, clapping the young man on the shoulder. "I suppose some things never change."

//

"Oh c'mon, jus' a one little formula."

"No, Mr. Scott. That would be the equivalent of violating the prime directive."

"Well, y'know, the other fellow from the future gave me the equation for how to beam onboard a ship going at warp."

"…did he now? Well, alright. But don't tell anyone."

//

Commander Spock had, up until this point, refused to be in the same room as Jim Kirk, and yet he insists on being present when Ambassador Solvak was to beam onboard.

"It is protocol, Captain," he says stiffly, and the set in his jaw challenges anyone to correct him.

//

There is a tension in the transporter room as New Vulcan's Ambassador materializes. Anticipation, excitement, and barely controlled emotions stretch the silence like a string frayed to its last cord.

Ambassador Spock is moving the moment the lights disappear, gliding off the transporter and reaching out to clasp Jim Kirk's hand in his own.

Spock looks pointedly away. So does Jim, eventually, but he hesitates long enough to see the older Spock bring his hand up and trace a line, with his fingers, from the bottom of the older Kirk's ear, down the jaw line, to his chin, and tilt it up.

"It is illogical to disbelieve the obvious—especially when it's standing before your very eyes, Mr. Spock."

"Indeed it is, Jim," Ambassador Spock agrees. And then he does the unexpected—he laughs.

//

"Captain," Spock says in undertones, "their request is unnecessary and most unorthodox."

"That may be, but who are we to dictate what Ambassador of New Vulcan desires?"

"Captain—"

"Spock. It's not a big deal. Besides..." Jim shoots a glance behind him, and when he speaks, it's softer in a whole other way. "They're kind of...us."

"They are not," Spock returns, sharper. "They are comparable, yes, but their history and ours differ by too much to be identical, thusly they are not _us_."

"Almost is enough," Kirk replies. "I'm granting it."

//

"Can you imagine? Us, being on the bridge of the Enterprise again—what are the chances?"

Sulu, and most of the junior staff, have never been so happy to be on gamma shift. Seeing the senior versions of their captain and commander while the junior versions stood on the side and twiddled their thumbs was…_awesome_.

"Vulcans do not imagine, Jim," Ambassador 'Solvak' replies. "But I believe the chances are one in a million."

"The same as always, huh?" The older Jim Kirk runs a hand over the Captain's chair. "This is where it all started," he continues, almost to himself. "I never thought I'd get to feel this again. I...I must still be in the Nexus..."

"So am I correct to believe," The older Spock says, "that Vulcan nerve pinches are cornerstone to your heart's desire?"

"I suppose not" Jim Kirk chuckles. "If the Nexus grants us everything we could desire from our wildest imaginations, the definitely not. My imagination would never have extended so far."

//

The two of them walk through the ship as if they had a thousand times before, almost synchronized right down to where their eyes glance over and where they linger. Yet in nearly no time at all, they are back in the transporter room, ready to beam down (for the last time) and Jim still has a million questions.

"Wait," he says, taking a deep breath. "Before you go, can you tell me...is there anything I should know about? Anything major that I should, ah, prepare for?"

//

The question gives Kirk pause. His mind returns to the countless moments in his captaincy where he only just evades death. There was Khan. The time Spock had died—Vulcan did not exist anymore, there may no longer be the option of forcing the soul back into the body. He even considered the words he had gifted so freely to Jean-Luc Picard.

Somewhere in the back of his head, he hopes that fellow managed to get help somehow.

"You're the Captain of the Enterprise," he says at last. "Who am I to tell you what your limits are?"

The smile of the younger James Kirk is the last thing he sees as he beams out, wide and fearless.

Just the way it was suppose to be.

//

The landscape of New Vulcan already bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor—red sand, dry heat, and high, elegant architecture stretched on the horizon.

"Well," he says, turning to Spock. "You and me again. Imagine that."

Spock touches his hand, eyes twinkling. "Always, old friend."

[ // ]

The sequel will deal more with nu!Kirk/nu!Spock, but I haven't gone past a few hundred words so don't expect that for awhile.


End file.
